The Indian personal and health insurance market is expected to grow to $350 million in five years, according to Christophe N Di Sipio, senior vice-president, Chubb & Son.
Chubb has a joint venture with Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and hopes to garner 15-20 per cent of the market, based on the existing competition, said Steve Warren, vice-president, accident and health, Asia Pacific zone, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.
Based on latest available data, the accidental death rate in India is 22.2 per 100,000 lives. Accidents today are the fifth largest cause of deaths worldwide, with heart diseases being the leading cause.
Others include cancer, strokes and respiratory illnesses. Of the total 3.8 accidental deaths worldwide, 1.4 million are on account of road accidents, and 1.1 million as a result of occupational deaths.
These worldwide statistics released by Chubb further point out that 320 million injuries take place as a result of accidents, whereby the policyholder ends up with an injury that lays him off work even for a day.
Despite the high rate of accidents, accident insurance is treated as an incidental cover and not as a major focus area by many, Warren said.
In the case of UK for instance, greater number of accidental deaths take place at home, while South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world resulting in accidental death.
Majority of accidental deaths are on account of road accidents, where the trend has been changing from country to country. In England and Japan there has been a steady decline in road accidents. However, in Poland with the rising number of vehicles piling on the roads, deaths due to road accidents have increased.
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